Sakari Oramo has been
forging a dazzling reputation for himself
and for the CBSO since his appointment
as Principal Conductor and subsequently
Music Director in Birmingham about three
years ago. Whoever made the Birmingham
choice chose well.

Oramo’s programming
and interpretations display an adrenaline
factor sadly absent from the Hallé's
current seasons, beginning to leach
away from the RLPO, and only sustained
with equal panache by the BBC Philharmonic
in Manchester. The London orchestras
have shown little of these qualities.
We will look back on these days as a
golden era comparable with Rozhdestvensky's
time with the BBCSO in the early eighties
and Järvi's in the late eighties
and early nineties with the RSNO. As
one example of Oramo’s approach to repertoire,
the coming season includes three major
works (Mirages, Lyra Celtica,
Dynamic Triptych) by John Foulds
- surely confirmation of persistent
rumours that there will be an Ondine
CD of this visionary music. In one of
his early seasons he conducted Constant
Lambert's large-scale choral/orchestral
classic, Summer's Last Will and Testament.
This happened at a time when seemingly
no-one else had the determination or
percipience to tackle the work ... not
since isolated performances by Norman
del Mar and Vernon Handley during the
1980s.

I digress, as ever.
To the task in hand … The world seems
to be awash with Sibelius cycles many
of which have been reviewed here. Vänskä
(Bis), Ashkenazy
(Decca), Berglund
(Bournemouth, EMI) and Karajan/Kamu
(DG Trio), to take four examples,
are all recommendable. Many of the others
have individual performances that are
outstanding but are less successful
across the board - Barbirolli
(EMI), Maazel/Pittsburgh
(Sony), Sakari
(Naxos) and Abravanel
(Vanguard). I have not heard Ehrling,
Berglund (Chamber Orchestra of Europe
- better than promising if the extracts
on a recent Finlandia compilation are
anything to go by), Rattle (CBSO again),
Leaper, Saraste, Segerstam, Gibson or
Watanabe so I cannot yet give a comprehensive
comparative overview.

Oramo's Sixth stands
at the extremes of interpretation and
will remorselessly hold your attention.
For me the Sixth is a work of bleached
radiance; the exemplar being the Karajan's
version (Trio on DG). The work has also
come to be thought of as slowly blooming
with Bernstein's CBS/Sony
recording being the best illustration
of that tendency. Oramo has none of
this. The symphony is over for him in
just over 27 minutes. His vision is
driven, heated, impetuous, passionate,
even splenetic in a way I do not recall
hearing before. Oramo might almost be
another Mravinsky in the belligerent
impetus with which he infuses Sibelius's
pages. The fourth movement catches the
rolling stormy magic of the piece and
links to the Seventh Symphony. It works
extremely well. Any Sibelian must hear
this version.

I mentioned Mravinsky
earlier; how tragic that he never recorded
any other Sibelius apart from the Seventh
and Tuonela. Oramo does not achieve
and probably never set out to achieve
the brazen indomitable quality of Mravinsky's
Seventh (BMG-Melodiya, Moscow, 1965).
However he too makes his mark with an
interpretation that is intense, laden
with sustained valedictory sentiment
and epic in reach. It does not for me
supplant Ormandy
(Sony) or Mravinsky(BMG-Melodiya)
but it is a fine reading.

The Seventh has its
driven impetuous moments where you are
conscious of an urgency to move forward
but this is as nothing to Oramo's way
with Tapiola. The opening pages
are soaked with accelerant and goaded
forward in a way you may find startling.
You might think such 'impatience' would
damage the music. Not at all. This is
the equivalent of the 1943 Berlin Furtwängler
version of a much earlier Sibelius tone
poem, En Saga.

Recording excellence
is taken for granted these days but
the standards achieved here by the Erato
team (Tim Oldham was the producer) are
exemplary. The sense of depth and honed
refinement is notable in the quietest
moments - for example at 3.34 in the
second movement of the First Symphony
and in the abrasive rasp of the trombones
in the finale. The reading of the First
is full of imaginative touches without
the startling drive we hear in Oramo’s
Sixth. This is excellent but not overwhelming;
for that you need to track down Barbirolli’s
First for the boiling intensity he found
for his Hallé recording in the
1960s (the Barbirolli complete
set on EMI Classics).

Emulating the famous
Okko Kamu coupling (DG) the disc-partner
to Oramo’s First is the Third Symphony.
Here the rhythmic cells are chiselled,
tactile and, in the finale, sturdy and
robust. Oramo keeps things taut (5.46
I, tr.5) but slows things drastically
for a second movement that is perhaps
too still for its own good. Nevertheless
this leaves blue sky clear for some
of the most enchanting woodwind playing
- especially the flute and clarinet.
Hot on the heels of the Third comes
a fine Finlandia in which the
brass and trumpets ring out with burnished
conviction (4.33). This may not be as
inky-black as Horst Stein’s version
with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
on Decca but it is excellent.

In the Fifth the visceral
accelerating pulse at 7.33 is well done.
In fact one of Oramo’s strengths is
what I can only call ‘micro’ acceleration
and deceleration. The smallest speed
re-contourings are lovingly calculated.
The grunting attack of the double basses
is captured as never before in the finale.
Try sampling at 2.30 and listen to that
sound: half grunt and half legno
rattle. Then move on to 4.12. The
magical spatial sense returns again
at 5.10 with the spectral ostinato and
the clarinet calling over the top. Oramo
and the Brummies are to be venerated
for the caressing tenderness they achieve
in the epic stride of the finale. And,
if you are wondering, every one of those
offbeat hammer blows at the end has
a precise and gripping ‘whump’. This
is a version of the Fifth to live with
long-term - very satisfying.

After the Fifth come
three shorter though not necessarily
slighter pieces. The Karelia goes
with a hop, a jump and a legato serenading
swing. Pohjola’s Daughter is
a symphony in microcosm. Its emotive
impact and feeling of logical progression
has always left me placing it with compact
symphonies such as Brian 22, Alwyn 5
and most of all with Rubbra 11. This
is of course one of Sibelius’s Kalevala
fantasies. Oramo does it wonderfully
well with many telling details recreated
along the way. These include a squat
and soulful cello solo at the start,
tightened and tautly-sprung ostinati,
boisterously rolled horns and the way
he gets the violins to sing out at 2.58.
Then there is the strangled brat of
a rattle of the horns at 5.09, his tocsin-accented
fast-chanting strings at 7.03, the magnificence
of the horns (like a certain Holstian
Jupiter) at the climax of the
piece and an unapologetic nobility (which
had me musing on what an Oramo-conducted
Elgar 2 would sound like). If the Horst
Stein version (Decca Weekend Classics
and also in a Decca twofer) remains
my preference Oramo is in the very top
rank alongside Bernstein (Sony), Sinaisky
(Saison Russe) and the tempestuous
Boult (Omega).

The drama quotient
drops for the minimalist grace of The
Bard - effectively a gentle mood
piece for harp and orchestra delivered
pretty much at p-ppp throughout.
It is enigmatic and by no means light
or inconsequential music. A pity that
we could not also have had Oramo’s Luonnotar.

The disc of the Second
and Fourth Symphonies is full. At 7.19
in the first movement the melodic line
of the French Horn is not blurred, being
heard for the first time. The definition
of the instruments is excellent. This
seems to be just as much about Oramo’s
micro-managed choices as about technical
recording judgements. More of this can
be sampled at the start of the Vivacissimo
(III) where every terraced gesture registers
with grace and impact. Much the same
can be heard with the little climactic
stress at the end of the brass oration
at 00.29. That small loudening accentuation
makes all the difference. The racing
calls at 6.33 I have never heard done
in that way before - certainly does
it for me! If there are hard-hearted
doubters they should be converted by
the final few moments which are overwhelming
not simply in sheer volume but in the
way Oramo carries all before him in
a deliberate tidal wave of rollingly
magnificent tone. Wow! - An illiterate
reaction but I can’t put it more succinctly
than that. The Fourth Symphony is good
with the recording presenting this most
caustic and stark of the symphonies
in a highly presentable light and with
a dazzling freshness in the finale.

I am assured that the
Szell/Cleveland version (live in Tokyo
in 1970) is the version of the Second
Symphony to have but, of the ones I
know, I can recommend strongly this
Oramo/Erato as well as Beecham’s rollicking
live version at the RFH (1954) with
the BBCSO, Ormandy’s version on Sony
and of course Barbirolli’s on Chesky.

Over the years some
superb recorded performances have come
out of Birmingham. I can think of the
Hugo Rignold recording of Bliss’s John
Blow Meditations (an underestimated
masterwork if ever there was one) and
Music for Strings both forever
doomed to Lyrita vinyldom, Frémaux’s
reign including still unmatched voluptuary
versions of the Walton Coronation marches,
Gloria and Te Deum (EMI
Classics) and some superbly-defined
Ravel, Addison’s march A Bridge Too
Far (conducted by Marcus Dods) and
Arnold conducting his own Fifth Symphony.
This set surely belongs in that company
and I hope that Warner-Erato will not
let the Oramo-CBSO connection slip through
their fingers.

If you like your Sibelius
served ablaze rather than cool then
Oramo is certainly the man for you.
If Mravinsky is your idol in the Tchaikovsky
Fourth, Ormandy in Harris 7, Bernstein
in Randall Thompson 2, Gerhardt in Hanson
2, Kondrashin in Rachmaninov's Symphonic
Dances, Svetlanov in Manfred
or Beecham in Sibelius 2 then you
are likely to want to add this Erato
set to your hall of fame. Magnificent!

Rob Barnett

John Phillips
has also listened to this set

This set of Sibelius
Symphonies and Tone Poems is to be welcomed,
albeit into a very overcrowded and very
well served market. Over the past few
years there have been released complete
cycles of these works from Paavo Berglund,
Colin Davis, Neeme Järvi, Osmo
Vänskä, and Oramo’s predecessor
in Birmingham, Simon Rattle. Each has
its strong points, but none, including
the current set, is to be preferred
over selecting individual performances
in the current catalogue. Before discussing
those, a few words about the current
set. It is as well played as any, such
is the rapport Oramo has with his orchestra.
Listening to all the hype about the
standards achieved with the CBSO I can
hear no falling off in playing quality,
indeed I detect a warming up of the
sound, which is a decided advantage.
There is also no problem with the recording,
right up there with the market leaders.

The acoustic of the
Birmingham’s Symphony Hall has much
to do with this. That said, the Rattle
recordings do not sound quite as fine,
good though they are (not all of these
were recorded in Symphony Hall anyway).

The first disc in the
set with symphonies 1 and 3 together
with Finlandia has been praised
in the music press. However I must confess
that I find the extremely slow tempo
for the second movement of the Third
Symphony a decided drawback – indeed
at one or two places it almost grinds
to an absolute halt. No. 1 is very good
with a lively third movement which enhances
this work. Finlandiais
an excellent fill up for these early
symphonies but the effect of Karajan
(DG) late 1960s performance is not eclipsed.

The second disc in
the set combines symphonies 2 and 4
and very good performances they are
too. In No. 4 the string tone is very
well nourished and sounds fine, without
eclipsing earlier versions. I have also
heard higher levels of tension in this
symphony which I would have liked to
hear here. Maybe in a few years with
a bit more experience under his belt,
Oramo may re-record these symphonies
to achieve this.

The third disc offers
only one symphony, No. 5. This again
is very fine and will satisfy all but
the most fastidious collector of Sibelius
symphonies. As fill-ups we have the
Karelia Suite, Pohjola’s Daughter, and
The Bard which are all excellent. It
is the fill-up for the last disc which
is absolutely superb, as good as any
in the catalogue. This Tapiola can stand
equally with the finest in the catalogue
and whilst not making the case for purchasing
all four discs in this mid-price set,
gives a very good incentive.

I said at the outset
of this review that separate discs would
make up a better collection, but I can
also say, that unless you are able to
put up with less than perfect recordings,
this solution would not be as attractive
as the current set.

For No. 1, I would
recommend Anthony Collins with the LSO
in mono on Beulah, (first choice) with
Lorin Maazel VPO on Decca, and an equally
fine disc on IMG/EMI of Stokowski’s
National Philharmonic coming a close
second.

No. 2 has only one
performance for me, and that is Pierre
Monteux and the LSO on Decca. If you
cannot lay your hands on that, then
George Szell and the Concertgebouw on
Philips runs this a very close second.
For No. 3, the choice must go to the
early Anthony Collins LSO recording
on Beulah.

By the time we reach
4, 5 and 6, we are including much better
sound recordings. Here, I would recommend
the late 1960s recordings on DG by Herbert
von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.
These have a majesty that I find quite
missing in other recordings – for example
try the opening of No. 4 and the finale
of No. 5 to hear genuine Sibelian tension
– quite marvellous.

For No. 7, I would
go for the Maazel VPO performance on
Decca. This is a little raw in sound
quality, but has incomparable tension
and a sense of growth, which no other
performance I have heard even comes
near.

So, there you are –
Oramo is fine for a one conductor set
of the Sibelius symphonies but there
is more to be found. Unfortunately,
none of these others have recorded a
complete cycle which attains the peaks
established by these discs. Also the
cost would be much higher forcing you
to purchase at least five discs with
duplications. In addition, none of the
individual recommendations has a recording
quality anywhere near that of the Erato
release. Indeed it is better than most
of the other complete sets. It comes
with my highest recommendation for this
layout.

Reviews
from previous monthsJoin the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the
discs reviewed. detailsWe welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin
Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to
which you refer.